Beiträge von IvanT

Hello All,

The more time I spend on my car (which I'm doing more of now) the more I realise what utter plebs I've been using over the years for repairs and mainteance. While checking out what needs doing for the coolant change, I have come across umpteen amount of missing screws on the plastic protectors, horns that have been tagged onto the underside of the car (they no higher than the bottom of the spoiler explaining why they stop working after going through deep puddles), wheel arch plastics also dropping down because of missing screws etc., etc., etc... There appear to be brackets higher up in front of the radiator for the horns, I'm getting new ones so will reposition those when arrived.
Quick question, check out the attached photo. What is that, and where should it be located??? I assume that when BMW designed this car, they didn't really decide that whatever this is, should be cable-tied to the front spoiler!
8er.org/forum/index.php?attachment/13101/

Cheers,
Ivan

errr... can you access the attachment photo?

Thanks for the input.

Garethf- I didn't know what the PCV was, but have checked Timms site and he has PCV valve replacement tutorial on it. It looks a bit beyond my capabilities. I'll monitor the system awhile before having that checked.

Timm- I hope it is just vapour. Haven't had a chance to change the coolant yet, but the oil still seems uncompromised. Also, I literally work 7 mins away by car, and therefore the car doesn't often get a good run. I've done a bit of motorway driving yesterday and today, and no vapour after a bit of a run.

Arnie- I do also somtimes get a coolant-type smell and BMW did think a couple of years back that I may have had a Freon leak in the aircon system, but still going strong so I assume not. As per reply to Timm, mostly I drive very short distances and rarely use the heater or aircon.

I over-filled the pentosin today ( before I ask advice on thw pentosin subject, I'll trawl the website to see where I went wrong!!!) and had a bit of a spill in the engine bay. I could smell the Pentosin I the cabin also! As the oil smell was after leaving the oil cap off, and hence 'drenching' the engine with fresh oil, I suspect smells from the engine bay are getting into the cabin. What could cause that?

Hello All,

For awhile now I've noticed 'smoke' coming out of my exhausts. as it was usually in cold and wet conditions, I just assumed a bit of water getting trapped in the exhaust and burning off. The problem appears to be getting worse as people now notice, and I've noticed while idling in traffic, no one else' car appears to be 'smoking'.
It is only noticeable while the car is idling and maybe (?) also when on an incline. The 'smoke' is odourless and whitish in colour. I put a white hankey over the exhaust today for a few minutes, and there was no discolouration. What's really concerning me is that I have noticed today that when first putting on the heating there is a smell of oil! It clears after half a minute or so. I don't see any water in the oil (changed last week and appeared fine), and I don't see any oil in the water. I'm changing the coolant over the weekend, so will get a better look. When the two are mixed, is it obvious to see? The car is not losing oil. The coolant is in a bad state, so don't know if losing any of that. Until I changed the oil last week there appeared to be no leaks. I do have a bit of an apparent leak now, but I think that may be down to forgetting to put the oil cap in place before starting the motor! There was quite a mess in the engine bay. Cleaned up as much as I could. Appears to be no loss of oil, but my mileage since changing the oil has been minimal, so hard to tell. How can I check difinitively that there isn't a leak. Obviously my concern is a blown gasket and water and oil mixing, or as previously asked, is it obvious to see such.
Any advice/guidance appreciated.

Ivan

Hubcentric rings on original wheels.

Hello 8Tech,

Do the original standard fitted wheels have the centering rings, or are these something only aftermarket fitted wheels would need?

I think maybe people give up. I've put up a number of posts that get pleanty of views, but no responses! Maybe they're just too simple, and as has been mentioned, people see that the topic has been dealt with before, so aren't interested. My last post was asking if there was somewhere on this forum (as I believe I have seen before but could not find this time) a list showing what the no.1 and no.2 maintenance services were. Somebody must have an idea, but apparently not. I'm also a Club GTI member and find the lads on there for more accommodating. As 8Tech said, with cars this old, of course everything has been discussed before, but not necessarily by the newbies. Searching the forum also is tedious, and youget a thousand opinions for every query. What was the best oil to use 10 years ago might not necessarily be the same today. I'd rather have someones opinion now than from a thread that's years old.

I have just had my leather done. After 14 years in the hot Andalucian sun, and two break-ins where they then sat on the glass while extracting the stereo, the state of my leather was horrendous. I used a company called Colorcare (www.colorcare.eu) and am absolutely thrilled with the results. They're a franchise so you'll need to check for nearest. For all 4 seats, sterring wheel, gearknob, door cards and dash cost €600. That's for a blue/black two-tone interior.

Who did you use?

That's a beautiful car. What colour blue is it?

I'm sure ages back I saw on here somewhere a no.1 and no. 2 service list. Can anyone direct me to same?

Cheers in advance if so...

Hi,

I have on good authority that there is a mod on this site that helps alleviate the problem of dim illumination on the air-con rotary dials. I've tried the seach facility to find it, but no luck. Can anyone out there direct me to it?

Much appreciated,
Ivan

Window seals. Will consider part damaged depending on where they're damaged. Need's not to be damaged where the front and back windows meet!
Please let me know...

Hi Terry,

"Then BMW intervened in my grand experiment and offered me a free MID if i gave my old one back. So I succumbed to the dark side and let them have it back."

How did you manage that???

Ivan

OBC pixels

Hi guys,

My OBC needs attention. I emailed the pixelartz guy asking if he speaks English. Holger, I believe that's his name, did reply but his English is as sketchy as my German!
Like someone's already said, seems to get good feedback so I'm going to risk sending mine to him. The question I want to ask you lot is "is the inspection info held on the OBC or elsewhere? Will I still get my inspection reminders correctly if the OBC has been out the car for awhile getting fixed?"
By the way. If Theo from Oz is reading this, can you drop me a line. Long time no speak... itinspain@yahoo.co.uk.

Cheers,

Hi Timothy,

I haven't. I'm brand new to the 8 series and although living in Spain, my Spanish is very rusty! All the manuals I have are in Spanish. I'm currently awaiting manuals in English.

Hi All,

On the suject of mpg, my OBC always shows 19mpg regardless of how I've been driving the car???

Any explanations?